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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27411754">Letters to Mad Eye</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pygmypuffonacid/pseuds/Pygmypuffonacid'>Pygmypuffonacid</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alastor's career has been plagued by Vexatious postage from a moderately helpful stranger, Time Travel, Vexatious postage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:29:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,132</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27411754</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pygmypuffonacid/pseuds/Pygmypuffonacid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the summer of 1969 when the letters started turning up. First they were vague Warnings about cursed objects in bathtubs, Advice to get A custom fit wand holster Before his first assignment in Ireland. A blessing for him to marry his sweetheart from Hogwarts strange but nothing Sinister.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the summer of 1969 when the letters started turning up. First they were vague Warnings about cursed objects in bathtubs, Advice to get A custom fit wand holster Before his first assignment in Ireland. A blessing for him to marry his sweetheart from Hogwarts strange but nothing Sinister.</p><p>And they were always signed H.J.P., Chief Auror. They never specified a year a date or a time but they were always addressed to Alastair Or to my old friend, Or on one memorable occasion just a week after he lost an eye to a death eater.... Mad Eye You lucky bastard... Apparently the letters didn’t warn him about everything with that one, Not that he was bitter they came and damn useful from time to time like the Bombarda misfire, If that one had been in his back pocket he would’ve lost that buttock... They were strange a bit of an unsolved mystery that he had Spent most of his career attempting to solve he had torn apart the registry of every wizard and law-enforcement official in the magical world there was a William Potter, hAdrian John Porter, And a Herbert James Paramont Who fit the profile but the handwriting never matched it was enough to drive him crazy at night making him a bit of An insomniac, Much to the cringing at his partner he would often come up with a break in a particularly difficult case while laying awake at 3 AM listening to the raccoons harass his bins, Those clever little nefarious garbage pandas. How ingenious they were no matter how he spelled the garbage receptacle to repel them they always made a plan to get around it in a way they were some of his fiercest opponents. And Alastair Moody had always enjoyed a challenge, Even a rather bizarre one.</p><p> </p><p>The letters kept coming, All through the war, a few even made him pause and dig deeper Into some thing, One memorable occasion was the situation with Sirius black, They had both been part of the order and sirius. Had seemingly turned traitor, Until Alastair found a half burned piece of parchment shooting towards him out of his living room fire the day after he made the arrest. The burning parchment just said, “ Check in with Arthur Weasley , And offer your condolences to his wife Molly nee Pruwett, Fabian Favorite sister the girl could do with some consoling since her brothers death. And keep an eye for any rat, I hear they can be murder on the magical Gardens.”</p><p> </p><p>Alastair had grimaced at the letter and looked longingly at his bed it had been a Bloody long day he had lost his right eyebrow to black and putting out the fires in a few with the Muggle businesses surrounding the utter Catastrophe in that alley. But he listened to the letter tossing it back in the fire and stomping out the door to summon the night bus.</p><p>There had been a light brown rat with a bleeding Paul missing a toe in the Weasley’s cabbage patch, Arthur’s youngest Percy has shown Alastair scared rodent Five minutes into his unexpected visit, The thing had run for his life at the side of him knocking itself out on a leg of a table. Alastair had taken it with him saying they were most likely bad for the gardens after expressing his condolences to Molly and Arthur. Molly had invited him to Fabian’s funeral a few days later.</p><p>Alastair had gone to the department after that handing the unconscious rodent to his rather repulsed new partner telling him to run the usual tests, When it came to overly intelligent animals. And by Merlin within a half hour they had Peter Pettigrew Unconscious on the desk.It had raised a great deal more questions rather than answers but it had gotten sirius black, Half of the murder charges though he still had a trial for the attempt. With veraserum used At the request of Cornelius fudge and Barty Crouch wanting a solid convection, From every person who testified in the trial</p><p> </p><p>What came to light was the biggest scandal since the equator of Lucius Malfoy two months prior.</p><p>Instead of a one-way ticket to AzLaban, Sirius black Walked out a free man with his solicitor already filing, An injunction for the custody of Harry Potter. It started one hell of a shit storm and revealed a rat besides Peter in their presence old bratty crouch Had a son who liked to leak information. It had been quite a piece of theater in the chamber.</p><p>Alastair had stomped home With a migraine brewing behind his magical eye and a need for a cup of tea On his mind</p><p> </p><p>Another missive shot out of the fire just as he started the pot for a cuppa, This one was different on thick vellum letter a simple thank you, Mad eye .Signed Harry James Potter, Head Auror, And head of magical law enforcement For the British isles</p><p> </p><p>Alastair just tossed it in a drawer shaking his head and went to bed it had enough strangeness for that Until morning. He could wait to deal with the trouble until then</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Well in all honesty the first letter that was actually a letter arrived in the summer of 1969  but Small snippets of parchment Had been flying out of the fire since he was a boy no doubt a result of HJP Still attempting to Perfect the method of his delivery. The first bit of parchment have been badly scorched with just the word Alastair Visible though the a was slightly scorched, He had gotten a scolding from his mother for standing by the fire to closely And denied pudding with dinner. That had to put him off any curiosity About the strange people Parchment materializing out of the Flame For a few hours while the taste of stewed beets still ghosted across his tongue with no Putting to have diluted the flavor afterwards.</p><p>Alastair Despised beets As a boy he always would even as he grew older, Even Half delirious from hours of torture, After being captured on a reconnaissance mission during the first war he refused to eat them ,  Even if he was half starved. The only thing that could make him eat those horrid things Was the reproving glare from across The dinner table. The taste of the beets Still very present on his tongue distracted him enough until he was ordered to bed without the desert he so wanted.</p><p>And as he laid in bed with disgusting taste on his tongue his mind turned Any distraction possible,  Thus back to the letter, And who could possibly be sending letters or parchment with his name through the fire it hadn’t been green so no floo  Powder was being used, It was a mystery and even Then when he was a boy of seven, Mysteries fascinated Alastair moody. And prompted him to experiment. He snuck out of the garden the following morning after eating a rather dry breakfast of toast and eggs With some cheese and tomatoes chopped in as it was his Father’s Day to cook since mum Had a migraine, That was so persistent not even the potions the healer prescribed could help it. So Alastair took advantage of his fathers distraction and grabbed his younger brother, Atticus (shut up atty we don’t need dad’s attention.) And headed to the woods Along the southern border of his parents property. When they hit the tree line Alastair yanked his brother into a run, Atticus started moving faster finally finally comprehending Alastair had a plan for that morning.And though as they grew older The success rate of Allister’s plans would increase significantly, As children such plans tended to end in disaster, Mayham, And being made to offer a sincere apology to Sister Montgomery , The kind old nun  that lived At the bottom of the valley, She was not in mind at the age of 90, But her mind was still quite sharp and she caught him more than once setting fire To Hawthorne bushes In the name of science.  </p><p>Such circumstances with the Moody boys being caught red-handed typically ended with them weeding her garden while sister Montgomery fed them cookies while attempting to look cross But failing spectacularly,  And she hated Hawthorne bushes and her property needed the landscaping. The moody boys were always welcome company, If a bit  Mischievous with their actions. They were only children, Setting Hawthorne bushes on fire with a bucket of water next to them, Was hardly any worse than burning ants with a magnifying glass like the Calahan Lad In the village. This particular minor incident of arson, Was inspired by Alastair’s scorched missive from the previous Morning. But he had helpfully shared with his brother, Atticus noticed a few other slightly decipherable words directly under Alastair’s name that his brother had overlooked. Together the moody boys manage to decipher, Avoid And a river, That work miraculously very close together so they assumed they pertain to one of their belonging to the same sentence. Telling Alastair to avoid the River, Which had high banks and a rapid current From the previous weeks continuous rainfall.</p><p> Though it was sunny that day thankfully a blessing from the torrential downpour that had persisted for nearly a month. Atticus had thought it would be a wonderful day to go swimming that morning before his brother had dragged him off.Before the word avoid was a rather large Scorch mark that had an a t and C Visible together with a few burned a bit in between. Alastair thought it might have been Atticus his name though he didn’t bring it up, it Gave him a slightly uneasy feeling When his brother mentioned he had Planned to meet Gregory and Giuliana from the Village school that morning To go swimming near Deadmans rock near the south bank of the river. Alastair had actually talked his brother when he mentioned it but didn’t say why even after Atty Demanded an explanation and tackled him in Outrage and the brothers began a ritual that would persist for the rest of their lives, Anytime they got into an argument that would somehow transform into Brilliant example of early Greco Roman wrestling, Until one of the brothers gave up or ate so much dirt their words were unrecognizable. </p><p>What is wrestling match only lasted about 10 minutes before the brothers realized The fire in Hawthorne bush was spreading rather quickly and The boys acted quickly to Smother the fire with the bucket next to them and some additional magic supplied by Allister who had a habit of being able to summon water jets  From his palm which came in quite handy for their More adventurous flammable activities. They hadn’t been quick enough and sister Montgomery caught them while there was still smoke rising from the Bush. Which began the time honored tradition that would be well established by the time Alastair left for school of weeding the nun’s Vegetable garden With one hand while eating a chocolate chip cookie with the other.</p><p>Alastair never quite figured out that day How are the letter came out of the fire even with their experiment featuring the Hawthorne Bush. But he somehow felt like that didn’t matter In the moment the parchment appeared to convey a warning that he had somehow heeded  inadvertently. As the brothers made their way back home that evening after finishing off a plate full of chocolate chip cookies and a minor reprimand about fire safety from sister Montgomery, They  Heard sobbing coming from the center of the village and their parents calling both their names, There was a large white Truck with the word Coroners office on it though it took a moment for Alastair to read it as he still had trouble With his n  at that point, His reading level was something that he still needed to work on. And just as he told Atticus What’s the van said they Were Dragged into a bone crushing hug with their mother Sobbing And their father looking very pale.  Your mother kept repeating she thought she had lost them, And it took a moment for the brothers to realize what was going on. As  The brothers confused tried to comfort their mother and speak to their father while returning to hug. As their parents drag them home with quiet whispers of telling them when they left in the morning, Alistair caught movement out of the corner of his eye, Of Grimm looking adults rolling a gurney covered in a white sheet towards the van parked outside. He saw Gregory Leibowitz’s Mum crying While an older man,  Maybe Gregory’s grandfather Had his arm around her and he loved equally as Grim. When Alastair asked parents what was happening and why Gregory’s mother was crying his mom started up again. And Atticus kicked him before darting thing to the other side Their father well out of striking range unless Alastair wanted to get grounded. The little shit. Atty  Had stolen his own technique retreating to mom and dad to avoid repercussions. Atticus had most likely kicked him for accidentally making mum cry again. Alastair didn’t get an answer about the odd circumstances until they were safely home again and their parents sat them down to explain, That Gregory and Giuliana had drowned in the river That day. At the news of it Alastair and Atticus had started crying and controllably and Alastair felt insanely grateful to the strange bit of parchment that shot  out at him On the fire. </p><p>Even as a young boy Alastair understood that day if he hadn’t been distracted and wanting help to figure out a problem Atticus would’ve been in the river that day. That’s Scrap of parchment,Had saved his little brother, And spark  Allister’s love For a good mystery and a need for answers. It was the start of a lifelong investigation, One that this time wouldn’t begin with a grave that read Atticus Jeremih moody in the back garden. Instead it would be fueled and helped along by his brother as they both tried to solve the mystery helping each other with a difficult problem. It would Inspire a bond of brotherhood That would become legendary throughout history. The moody brothers Would never give up on a hunt for an investigation until they had concrete answers or a suspect in custody. Decades later it would make them the Legendary Aurors To come Of The first war against Voldemort. It was a war that was already brewing when they were children but But wouldn’t Manifest until they were both out of Hogwarts.</p><p>But Alastair didn’t know that at the time he just knew like any young boy, That he loved his parents and that he loved his brother. That one of his best friends had just died, But Atticus Hadn’t Thanks to thAt  Badly burned letter. So maybe The spell HJP used had worked as intended.</p><p>  Alastair and Atticus spend the rest of that evening within inches of each other and slept in the living room with their parents who were both still quite shaken they got putting that night even when Alastair wandered a bit close to the fire to whisper The words, “ thank you.”  Into the amber fire.  That seemed to crackle a bit more intently As if understanding his whisper.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was nearly 2 years before another bit of parchment came out of the flames. Just a few hours before dawn on Boxing Day. Alastair was counting down the days until he got his Hogwarts letter. It was something he felt was guaranteed, What with Turning that fox purple the previous summer and teleporting Matthias Rockwood , the school House bully who had decided to make Atticus his new target Onto the roof of the old Dairy Attached to the Patterson’s house. Matthias had spent most of that day being reprimanded by the fire brigade for climbing something so reckless. Alastair had just gone to get ice cream with his brother with a bit of pocket money he had saved for just the occasion they had a wonderful view through the glass front windows of the shop while Matthias got an earful from the adults. No one ever believed him when he claimed he didn’t climb the building,the Schoolmistress even  Took a switch to him when he started repeating such nonsense During their mathematics lesson the following morning. But he never went after Atticus Again, Alastair couldn’t help but have a mad grin whenever he passed Matthias in the town square boy always ran off in the opposite direction.  He couldn’t prove one of the Moody boys had Been behind his reprimanding but he steered clear of them after that. Alastair waited nearly a year to tell his father about the situation it’s Got him grounded but with his Favorite uncle being a licensed Obliviator The Mathias problem was handled without any documentation. So nothing formal  Ever happened due to ministry action. </p><p>Sister Montgomery passed away The same day as when the parchment materialized out of the living room fire. The mailman had found her, Much too the great sadness about the Moodey Boys and most of the Village. She was a beloved town elder and more than one child had gotten away with vandalizing her property in the name of experimentation with a mild scolding and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. In exchange for some actual yardwork and perhaps fetching a bucket of water. Alastair had taken to dusting her parlor and chopping firewood well Atticus was left still too young to weld an axe to weed the garden, They had taken to stopping by almost every day on their way back from school sometimes setting a bush ablaze, And others cleaning the gutters when Atticus focused just enough to remove the leaves with magic. Before sister Montgomery noticed, She was a kind woman and one that they had started to think of as a pseudo-grandmother. It was devastating to them both but the letter for Alastair That day Had a telephone number for our solicitor in Northumbria Called Maxine Waters. He had given the number to his father who placed a call to them that evening.  It turned out that had been a necessary action,As far as anyone in the village was aware sister Montgomery had no living family in the village had been discussing how to fund her funeral. Sister Montgomery had a brother that was in banking in London who drove down with his daughter the following week, Paying for a full church service and a respectable carved granite marker for a tombstone. It had messages written from everyone of the children in the village, In small inscriptions along the border. Alastair included his own words, “ Sister Montgomery always knew when we set something on fire. And yet she never stopped us. She was the kindest woman in the village. “</p><p>Atticus had put Some thing a bit more cryptic, As he had been taught by sister Montgomery about muggle  chemistry The inscription he put was a complicated chemical compound drawing that when examined worked out to the perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies and a small word underneath that said She was an angel. Atticus was certainly the more creative of the brothers moody. </p><p>Sister Montgomery’s will was read in the village,  Her house was to be turned Into a village center for the children,  And she left all her books as she put it, “ Those darling rapscallions the moodey boys . On the condition they set fire to a Hawthorne bush every Christmas in her honor.”</p><p>It was something they happily did as a bit of tradition well into their 180s, Before They became a bit too old to conjure that kind of Fiendsfire , It became an Auror Christmas tradition for the DML around the time Alastair retired. The Montgomery bush burn Was a tradition that would persist for centuries, Though not a single wizard outside the moody Brothers to tell you what it symbolized or why it started.  </p><p>Alastair a few weeks after this incident found an old silver pen knife in one of Sister Montgomery’s Cupboards when they were cleaning out the property. It had a symbol on it for the magical Congress of the United States of America, Along with a heart carved just below it. The name Henry Clearwater  Was inscribed On the inverse side of the blade. It was a tad bit strange, And some thing that sparked Alastair’s interest so he spent the following months investigating. Assister Montgomery, Though well beloved And one of the few people that was constant in his life since his childhood the woman had barely spoken of her life before she came to the village. Allister’s need to solve a mystery prompted the families first international vacation to New York across the Atlantic. And four days spent at the congressional archives hidden behind a laundromat in Manhattan.</p><p>Sister Montgomery had been a squib, A very influential one who had managed to get a few exceptions made for the statute of underage magic, Which before her legislative actions hadn’t accounted for accidental burst of magic or any kind of emergencies. She had had two sons With a wizard name Henry who was still alive at the time they found the records. They weren’t sure what happened but Henry had taken the return of his pocket knife quite hard,  And spoke very quietly when Alastair and Atticus turned up on his doorstep on their seventh day in America.</p><p>It turned out the no mag Marriage policies of the early 19th century had forced the young couple apart with sister Montgomery being forced to leave her family and forfeit her memories. Though it seems thanks to the moody boys She at least had a vague inclination about magic. The brother spent the rest of that day speaking to the family of one of their closest acquaintances, The woman they considered a grandmother, And a champion for money though she didn’t remember it.</p><p>They left a knife along with anything else they could scrounge together between them that belong to Sister Montgomery with Henry Clearwater and his sons who finally had a bit of closure about what happened to their mother. </p><p>Their father took them through walk in Central Park after where they manage to stop a mugger and something called, A drug dealer From selling some kind of white powder to a lady named Marilyn. She had been a bit brisk with them but very pretty. She had started to say her name was Norma Jean, Before correcting her statement. Making both the Moody boys, Quite confused about the pretty Muggle who didn’t know her name. Which made their father explain about the irregular practice of non-magical people occasionally legally changing their name, Which made the boys even more bewildered as everyone knew names had magical powers. You didn’t give up the thing that identifies you, It meant being able to summon Anything that belong to you if you didn’t use the right name for it.</p><p>They spent another week In New York after that Alastair became a junior detective thanks to a kind NYPD officer,  Atticus didn’t get a badge simply because he tried to steal the man’s baton during the small presentation ceremony. He might not have gotten a badge but he got away with the man’s hat. Which made Alastairquite jealous, For a moment before his brother shoved it onto his head and called him a Muggle Lawman, Making one moody brother chase the other down the streets of New York. Their mother still didn’t understand how they ended up in Boston, A hobo, a  train Depot, And a kind dental assistant named Marianne Were the only explanation offered when their parents came to collect them on the Amtrak system , Much to their annoyance. But Alastair had been quite amused for that extra day in America, He learned how to count cards from a man Named Luciano, While Marianne  Made them cannolis in their kitchen. Atticus was just enamored with the moving Picture box In their living room. Which made Alastair a little uneasy. When asked, Marianne told them it was called a television. Atticus became fascinated with Muggle  technology in that moment, While  Alastair Took away a new skill in the slight of hand and how to read body posture from the experience rather than fascination with technology, It was a skill that would make him a formidable law Auror And Atticus with his interest would certainly come in handy whenever they needed to drive a Muggle fan which was surprisingly frequently giving their future profession.</p>
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